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<p>The Government is committed to taking decisive action to address alcohol fraud.
A number of steps have been taken to reduce tax evasion in this area, including significant
investment in enforcement and introduction of a programme of new measures outlined
in “<em>Alcohol Fraud: Next Steps”</em> published by the Government in January 2014.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We announced at Autumn Statement 2013 that the Government intends
to introduce a registration scheme for alcohol wholesalers, to reduce the prevalence
of alcohol fraud in the wholesale and retail sectors. Since then HMRC has consulted
businesses on the operation of a register, and preparations are now advanced to introduce
this scheme from the autumn of 2015. The Government will introduce legislative proposals
for this scheme at the earliest opportunity.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government
introduced a new measure on 1 November 2014 requiring business to undertake reasonable
due diligence on their supply-chains and have robust procedures to reduce risks of
trading in illicit goods. This currently applies to businesses in the alcohol sector
that already hold other forms of excise approval with HMRC, and consideration is being
given to applying this to other sectors such as alcohol wholesalers.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>The Joint Alcohol Anti-Fraud Taskforce (JAAT) was also launched in
January 2014. This brings together government agencies and the drinks industry in
a common objective of developing new ways to reduce alcohol fraud. The taskforce is
exploring new technologies, information sharing and more effective collaboration.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>All these measures, in combination with the ongoing enforcement
strategy which the Government introduced in 2010-11, are significant steps aimed at
reducing the tax gap due to alcohol fraud which remains unacceptably high.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p>
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